NRDC co-hosts in-depth press briefing on carbon pollution standards

This week, NRDC and the NRDC Action Fund hosted a briefing for several dozen Washington-based reporters on the long-awaited proposed carbon pollution standards expected to be released by President Obama and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy next Monday. Those proposed rules would for the first time cut carbon dioxide pollution from the nation’s 1,600 power plants—which are the single largest source of CO2 emissions and are a major contributor to the increasing threats of climate change.

“After decades of warnings we can see that climate change is happening here now doing serious damage in every part of the country,” said David Doniger, NRDC’s director of climate and clean air program. “It’s time to close the loophole for carbon pollution. The president and his EPA already have the legal authority to act using a law already on the books, the Clean Air Act. Far from going around Congress, President Obama is carrying out his duty to faithfully execute a law Congress already enacted.”

Other presenters included David Goldston, director of government affairs, Pete Altman, director of climate and clean air campaign, and Heather Taylor, director of the NRDC Action Fund, and Kim Knowlton, NRDC’s senior scientist and a co-author of the National Climate Assessment’s chapter on health impacts.

NRDC first proposed a flexible, state-based power plant carbon pollution plan in 2012 that the EPA is widely expected to model in its proposed power plant rules, a major part of the president’s Climate Action Plan. An updated report released this year found that the NRDC plan would slash up to 700 million tons of carbon pollution per year in 2020 compared to 2012 levels, yielding as much as $63 billion in health and environmental benefits, while creating and promoting jobs in the clean and renewable energy fields.

You can read the transcript of the hour-long press briefing and Q&A session at this link, and listen to the entire audio recording and see pictures from the event here.

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